Your customers aren’t coming to your site to buy flowers. They’re not coming to purchase quick delivery or a red rose bouquet. Your customers aren’t coming to your site to buy keywords. Don’t let your product descriptions focus on the literal bouquet; instead, make it focus on the moment surrounding that bouquet.
What Product Descriptions Should Be
We’ll readily admit that keywords are essential to your product descriptions. Well-chosen keywords ensure your customers can actually find your site and start buying your products. However, a keyword-stuffed description will scare your customers away faster than a picture of a dead bouquet.
Keyword stuffing isn’t effective; rather, it indicates to the customer that your only objective is to sell as many bouquets as possible. It’s not enough to get your customers to your page. You’ve got to move your customers, too.
Unfortunately, to write a killer product description you’ve got to figure out how to tug your customers’ heartstrings while still putting in all your keywords.
Tip #1: Before You Write Your Description
Before you choose your keywords, think about your audience. Don’t think about your target audience yet—think about the customers behind the screen.
Think of the shy-eyed teenager about to buy his first boutonnière for a prom date.
Imagine the teacher picking out a goodbye bouquet for her first-ever student teacher.
Picture the husband agonizing over which flowers best say I’m sorry I mowed your prize tomato plants.
You’re not selling flowers: you’re selling a romance. A bittersweet farewell. A sheepish apology.
In short: think of the person first– and the search engine second.
Tip #2: Push, Don’t Shove
Lead your customer to the idea of buying your product. Don’t shove him off the cliff. Your descriptions should tug heartstrings, not yank them. Here are some things to avoid when writing your product descriptions:
- Too many adjectives. Enough with the brilliantly elegant displays of rich crimson flowers with pristine snow-white baby’s breath. Not only does this sound like a ninth grader’s poetry journal, it’s plain bad writing. Adjectives act like pepper on your steak: they enhance the meat. Your nouns are your meat. Use plenty of them—and go easy on the pepper.
- Empty promises. She is guaranteed to love this amazing gift basket! Do you know what this says to your customers? Nothing. If you told a person to draw an “amazing gift basket,” could they draw one? Give your customers concrete ideas, not empty promises.
Tip #3: Write First, Then Place Your Keywords. Carefully.
When you’ve written your description, look for places where you could naturally place your keywords. “These flowers” could easily become “This red rose bouquet,” couldn’t it? When you’ve outfitted all your nouns and pronouns with your killer keywords, read your description out loud. What sounds forced? What sounds overtly sales-y?
Tip #4: This Counts for Social Media, Too!
You’re practicing your best SEO copywriting skills, you’re picturing your audience, you’re finding those keywords, and you’re writing to sell. Good. Great. Fantastic…but you’re not done yet.
We live in the age of social media—if your Aunt Mildred recommends a flower company, you’re going to go with Aunt Mildred’s florist over a search ranking’s recommendation. Sell to Aunt Mildred—and everyone else on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Use that social media muscle to your advantage: utilize these tips when you tweet your featured product of the day or post your weekly special on Facebook.
Nicki Porter graduated summa cum laude from Old Dominion University with a B.A. in English and her writing has appeared in publications like The Albion Review and the Wildwood Journal. When not writing for CopyPress (or otherwise), Nicki can be found wandering through farmers’ markets, making a mess of her kitchen, or snapping photos with her trusty camera.
Image Source: Pink Sherbert via Flickr
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
It’s all about common sense, isn’t it? I give my clients the same advice–put yourself in your customer’s shoes and look at your website’s content from his or her perspective. So many websites waste their content just touting how great the business is rather than showing the potential customer how the business can help that person. Kudos on some great tips that can truly make a difference in creating a website of real value!